1. I am one of the leading
academics in the field in the UK and the only expert witness specialising in
court cases where home education is an issue. My 2002 research involved 1099
children and remains the largest and most in-depth and authoritative
independent of home education carried out in the UK. The
research involved 419 survey questionnaires to families and 238 targeted assessments (with 196 different children) to evaluate
the psychosocial and academic development of home-educated children aged eleven
years and under.

2. I was invited on two
occasions to meet with Mr Badman.

3. At our first interview Mr
Badman was interested in what I had to say. His opening question was to ask me
if home educating mothers suffered from Munchhausen's by Proxy. I thought this
to be a curious starting point - that of questioning whether home education is
a symptom of mental illness. I am not medically qualified, but I was able to
inform Mr Badman that there is no research evidence available that I am aware
of, which makes this link.

4. At our second interview
Mr Badman was dismissive of my work. He insisted that my study covered just 30
children. He indicated that someone had told him this and insisted that my
conclusions and findings, therefore, were of little significance. Nothing I
could say would sway him from this view. He had clearly not informed himself
about my work by reading it.

5. I consider the review to
be seriously flawed. It should be a matter of concern to the Select Committee
that the person commissioned to carry out the review could so easily be
influenced by a lay person hostile to my work.
I question the rigour applied to the Review.

6. All the tests I conducted
were overseen by two senior professors and employed established methods for
reliability and validity. Articles published following my research have
appeared in peer reviewed journals. My work has thus been judged to be rigorous
enough for the wider academic population and I have presented papers on my work
to academic and professional audiences in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Malta,
Ghent, Estonia, Geneva and to broader audiences through BBC television and
radio news, and many radio interviews. Next week I am presenting a paper in
Vienna, and the University of Bogota have invited me to speak there in
November.

7. I was not notified of the
Select Committee despite having participated in the Review.

8. I have many observations
to make regarding Mr Badman's recommendations but the absence of numbers in his
bulleted recommendations makes this reference laborious. Overall the
recommendations are, in my opinion, complicated, expensive and unworkable.